Patton Oswalt on His New Netflix Special, MST3K and The Force Awakens

While he’s plenty busy these days as an actor -- in the past year, you’ve seen or heard him on The Goldbergs, BoJack Horseman, Veep and Agents of SHIELD, among many other projects – Patton Oswalt also has a brand new stand-up special debuting this Friday on Netflix, Talking for Clapping.

I sat down with Oswalt to discuss his approach to stand-up, some of the topics he covers in Talking for Clapping and more, including his role in the new revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and -- following his hysterical, highly critical thoughts on the Star Wars prequels -- his take on The Force Awakens.

IGN: You’ve spoken about the differences and similarities between a music tour versus doing stand up and watching the special, I did wonder how much you lay it out like a set list and figure out the rhythm of, “This bit before this bit.”

Patton Oswalt: I do all my writing on stage. I go up on stage with some very fuzzy ideas and I work it out over and over. You have to be very, very present and very much pay attention to what is going on both good and bad in your bits and be honest about that. That’s the main thing. So as much as I’m trying to write on stage, I am trying to pay attention to, “Oh, so this bit that I thought was good maybe belongs closer to the beginning. It’s not as strong.” Or there are big chunks of it I have to leave out where there are no laughs. I want laughs laughs laughs. So it’s such an inexact process but it’s just about paying attention and being present.

Patton Oswalt in Talking for Clapping.

IGN: You end with a great bit that’s very family oriented, based on your experiences as a parent. How did you decide to conclude on that?

Oswalt: What I realized is I’m leaving on this bit that is very much my life from now on. I go to children’s parties. I’m raising a daughter and yet weirdness still gets injected into it. There’s still comedy to be found. I’m talking about very esoteric stuff throughout the special and the last thing I talk about is going to a children’s party and you’re like that’s the death of -- Where’s the comedy!? And then here comes comedy if you’re paying attention for it.

IGN: Of course your comedy will change and evolve as you get older and your life changes. I’m guessing when you were a young comedian, you couldn’t imagine doing a bit about such things?

Oswalt: But at the same time, you don’t want to be in your late 40s still doing bits about living life like a 20 year old and being hungover and “Oh, my landlord!” Like, “Okay, we heard all these insights from you but did you go and explore what life has to offer both good and bad?” You kind of want that form, for lack of a better term, as an artist rather than just covering the same topics over and over again.

IGN: As someone who writes about TV and watches a lot of TV, it snuck up on me how much standup Netflix is doing. They've become a big new source for this world.

Oswalt: It’s like I was saying earlier, they have recreated the reality of when stand up comedy was on LPs and cassettes and would get passed around and talked about by people. Now you’ve got it all stacked up in your queue and you can tell people “Put this in your queue and watch it. It’s amazing.” I watch all of Bill Burr’s specials. You just stack em up and watch them that way.

IGN: You go on a great run in the special about how it’s a challenging time to be progressive socially and yet keep up with what’s the agreed upon term for everything. It feels like it’s a very internet-era problem.

Oswalt: The idea of “His heart is in the right place” is no longer valid with the current generation. You had better be using whatever the current terms are or the pitchforks are going to come out. There’s so many examples of people that. It’s like I say in the special -- RuPaul getting roasted for saying the word “Tranny.” Maybe let that one slide. I think she has done more than you have done so far. RuPaul is out there in the world changing shit and you’re hashtagging something on the internet. I think I’m going to go with her on this. I think she has more value right now. That to me was always fascinating.

IGN: I have to ask you about being a part of Mystery Science Theater 3000’s return. You’ve mentioned getting to be a part of a lot of things you love. Suffice to say this is another example?

Oswalt: Yes, very much so. They contacted me and said “Hey, do you want to be Son of TV’s Frank?” “Oh my god, yeah!” And we’re going to be watching movies and riffing. I’m very excited.

IGN: These days us geeks are getting nearly everything we’ve ever wanted with all these comic book adaptations and things we never thought we’d see, along with these revivals of shows and films we loved in the past, Mystery Science Theater being one of them. Do you think it’s just so much dream stuff at once that it’s kind of amazing?

Oswalt: Yeah and there are books and television and music and everyone only has the same two hours. You have to be more of a connoisseur with your taste and more of a risk taker and the same time. “Do I try this thing out? Does it work? Does it not?” It’s bringing up this generation that from a very young age. They are well versed in every aspect of a certain genre rather than having to seek it out. The ones that are going to matter are the ones that absorb that knowledge and try to transcend it rather than recreate it. Because in a lot of the reboots and recreations… the two biggest examples this past year were the Force Awakens and Mad Max. They were reboots that took the next step in what they did. That was helpful for me to see that and a lot of other stuff fell by the wayside of “You’re rebooting but you’re not pushing through. You’re hitting the same beats. Why don’t you use those beats to create a new melody?”

IGN: Since you mentioned the movie and have had great observations on Star Wars in the past, I have to ask - what did you think of The Force Awakens?

Oswalt: I loved it. I loved that he recreated the thrill of seeing it for the first time in the theater and also having to juggle all of the things that people wanted to see from the original reintroduced and giving things the end off and intros they deserve. I said this on Conan… Star Wars was this amazing friend of yours in the 70s that had great cocaine and hookers and you stayed up until 5am and he was always fun and then in the late 90s he got sober and became libertarian and always talked about government and trade tariffs and “Maybe you need to know where the cocaine comes from” and you’re like “Dude, I thought we were going to party!” And now he’s back and he’s like “Screw all that. Let’s do it!” So that’s how I equate it.

IGN: Would you also include Creed in the list of successful reboots?

Oswalt: Yeah! Star Wars, Mad Max and Creed. And also, I would say Ash vs. Evil Dead. Here’s how you bring back something we’re all familiar with and take it to the next level.